I’m delighted to be able to report but I am feeling A lot better than I was this time last week. Thanks to a tried and tested emergency painkiller and anti-inflammatory protocol, several hot bath infused with essential oils, and targeted hip exercise from my yoga teacher, I am now virtually pain free again. This means I can pick up the fitness and exercise regime, which will further enhance the weight loss drive, which in turn will help support my dodgy joints. The world does not feel quite as gloomy as it did last weekend, and yesterday I seriously intended to get on Florence for the first time for awhile. However we had an emergency hay delivery, together with a visit from some horse owning folk who live in the village. As we all stood talking the weather just got worse and worse. I thought the weekend was supposed to be decent, but no, increasingly strog wind and heavy rain. Riding abandoned. The good thing though is that yesterday is the first day that I have really felt Abel to ride since November. In itself this is a highly positive thing, and has lifted my spirits massively.

I’m definitely back on track.

It’s been a busy week. . The Vet, or should that be Vet’s? There were two of them after all, came out on Tuesday morning. Some good news is that there is nothing wrong with Leone is good I, and her damaged eye has remained stable, so what ever the reason she has been misbehaving, it’s not because she’s losing her eyesight totally. You don’t know how relieved I am about this. Had quite a chat about her behaviour and what the he Tenshaw reasons for it might be, and we have an action plan. The first instalment of which is to run some blood tests. The blood was taken on Tuesday, but so far we have not had the results back. Breeze also had her cough checked out. She’s not running a temperature, and apart from demonstrating the cough nicely, wasn’t displaying any other signs of feeling poorly. The vet suspects allergy. She has quite a lot of medicine to take, and she has been eating some moist Haylage just in case. Nobody has heard her cough since Thursday morning. Result!

The problem we, and the rest of the horse owning community, have is a shortage of forage. Actually, it’s a problem for farmers too. Despite the brief spell of hot weather we had last spring, last Summer was a wet one. There were no long dry periods, so haymaking and silage making were extremely difficult. . Fast forward to now, and the world is full of empty barns, and social media is full of desperate pleas for hay. Of course, as demand exceeds supply farmers and forage merchants are cranking up the price. Economics for beginners I know, but bloody annoying just the same. As someone pointed out, it hasm’t cost any more to produce. Also, and this happens with a lot of things regardless of how much supply dare is. A premium is added to the price when the word horse enters the equation.

We are extremely lucky, because of the kindness and consideration of the lovely Steve, Who is the man we usually get our hey and Haylage from,although “It has been difficult to octane hey this year, it hasn’t come as an awful shock. Steve informed us at the beginning of the season that his supply was short. Bless him though, he has bent over backwards to keep us supplied, personally searching for more hey for us. He really has gone over and above. He’s such a kind caring individual. It’s wonderful to know that they still are some good folk out there.thdre have been some breaks In the supply chain, but we’ve been able to plug the dap by buying in some expensive proprietary bagged forage, Devon Country Haylage, from Mole Valley Farmers. At £5 or thereabouts for 18 kg it works out extremely expensive, but there seems to be a ready supply, so it’s an ideal emergency stop gap. It smells gorgeous, and the horses absolutely love it. I’ve never known either Leonie or Florence decline to come to the door if they think there’s a chance of being able to scrounge a mint off of somebody, but with a net country Haylage in the stable, nothing else seems to matter. I think I will definitely be keeping a few bales in store in the future. In the meantime, Steve has managed to find some absolutely huge, 8ft x 4ft x 4ft hey Bales, One of which he delivered yesterday. So hopefully my girls are not going to start any time soon.

What has taken me by surprise though is the problem with supply of bedding. I use wood pellet bedding. The company I use, Sorbio , source the majority of their wood from Scotland. however most of their competition source their wood from Europe, and even Russia. . Apparently there are major problems with the supply chain, due I’m part to the weather. I’m told that it has been so wet in parts of Russia that it’s impossible toget into the forests to fell trees.meanwhile, back here in Britain the problem has been exacerbated by one of the biggest pellet bedding companies having a flood in their warehouse, and losing all their stock. Of course, I was blissfully unaware of all this, until I innocently phoned Sorbio to order a pallet of bedding. There’s going to be a delay. This is going to be a problem! Fingers crossed it gets here by the end of the week.

With a lack of hay and bedding our little barn resembles Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard. It’s very bare indeed. Worryingly so. However it’s already 21 January, it’s really only a few short weeks until spring arrives and we can think about turning the girls back out permanently.